Three Box Information Processing Model

Long-Term memory is where we store memory

Biological Basis of Memory

Believed that memory was localized – specific memory stored in a specific area.

Removed parts of rat’s cerebral cortex but found no one area contained the memory of the maze

Found that maze-learning in rats was distributed throughout the brain

New Research by MIT working to find the engram in mice brains (G-class)- Come up with your own question.

Karl Lashley searched for a localized memory trace or engram

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How are the Memories Stored?�Synaptic Changes

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) A long-lasting change in the structure or function of a synapse that increase the efficiency of neural transmission.

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Long-Term Potentiation

Brain Structures Involved in Memory

Cerebrum

Memory Storage�Retaining Information in the Brain

• Memories are NOT stored in one part of the brain.

Processing encoding leads to LTM-

It is important where memories are stored

Imp

Implied

Processing encoding leads to LTM-

It is important where memories are stored

Imp

Implied

Figure 32.5 Our two memory systems

David G. Myers: Myers’ Psychology for AP^®, Second Edition�Copyright © 2014 by Worth Publishers

Memory Processing Review

Declarative Memories-�Semantic vs. Episodic Memory

Semantic means having to do with language and knowledge about language. An example would be the question “what does argumentative mean?” Stored in our semantic memory is knowledge about words, concepts, and language-based knowledge and facts. For example, answers to the following questions are stored in your semantic memory: Consolidation during sleep

• Who was the first President of the United States?
• What is democracy?
• What is the longest river in the world?

Episodic memory is information about events we have personally experienced. The concept of episodic memory was first proposed about 40 years ago (Tulving, 1972).

• Currently, scientists believe that episodic memory is memory about happenings in particular places at particular times, the what, where, and when of an event (Tulving, 2002). It involves recollection of visual imagery as well as the feeling of familiarity (Hassabis & Maguire, 2007).

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Implicit-Memory System: The Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia

• Cerebellum- Cerebellum – Stores procedural (muscle memory) skills
• Riding a Bike, Swimming, Typing, playing an instrument
• Basal Ganglia- Helps plan & control complex patterns of movement laying down a memory of the physical procedure.
• Works without telling your consciousness (frontal lobe)
• Infantile amnesia

Evidence for Separate Implicit/Explicit Systems

• Patient H.M. (Henry Gustav Molaison)
• life-threatening seizures originating in temporal lobe
• surgically removed portions of temporal lobe
• Surgery was effective in reducing seizures
• BUT, had other side effects as well
• Can remember explicit memories acquired before the surgery
• e.g., old addresses, normal vocabulary
• Cannot form NEW explicit memories
• e.g., remembering the name of someone he met 30 minutes prior
• cannot name new world leaders or performers
• can recognize a picture of himself from before his surgery but not from after and doesn’t recognize himself in a mirror

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Patient H.M. (TED Ed Video link)

• H.M. has severe explicit / declarative memory disorder

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• H.M. is almost normal on procedural or implicit memory tasks including priming, classical conditioning, and learning motor skills
• When given the same procedural puzzle to solve for several days in a row, H. M. was able to solve the puzzle more quickly each day however, had no recollection of learning it.

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• This shows that explicit memory depends upon the Hippocampus and implicit does not

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Memory and the Hippocampus

• Damage to the hippocampus would result in the inability to form new explicit memories, but the ability to remember the skills of implicit memories

• To view EP’s memory damage checkout the video by clicking on it (7:38)

Forgetting�Forgetting and the Two-Track Mind

-Anterograde Amnesia- An inability to

form new memories. (Ex: HM & EP)

-Retrograde amnesia- The inability to retrieve memories from your past.

Scott Bolzan

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Emotions & the Amygdala

• Amygdala may help in formation of emotional memories.

Memory Storage�The Amygdala, Emotions, and Memory

• Amygdala
• Flashbulb Memories

Flashbulb Memory

• A type of Episodic Memory
• Memory of an event so surprising or significant to us that it is as if we photographed it in our mind.
• Why do these happen?
• We pay more attention to special events
• We think about them more often (repetition)
• We connect them to other events in our lives
• Accuracy declines over time even though it feels extremely accurate

Where were you on �September 11, 2001?

Memory and the Brain

• Play “Remembering What Matters” (8:30) Segment #16 from Scientific American Frontiers: Video Collection for Introductory Psychology (2^nd edition).
• How does adrenaline affect our ability to remember something?
• Which part of the brain seems to be active when you form flashbulb memories?
• How do evolutionary psychologists explain flashbulb memories?

Stress Hormones & Memory

• Heightened emotions (stress-related or otherwise) make for stronger memories.
• Hormones such as Epinephrine act on brain centers in the brain
• Extreme stress undermines learning and later recall
• How does this apply to an exam?

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Aging and Memory

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• Ability to recall new information, unaided by clues, declines with age,
• But ability to recognize new information, as in a multiple-choice question, does not.
• Elderly may need more time to retrieve memories but still can do as well as a young person.

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Culture & Memory

• Levy and Langer study of cultural views of aging show that society’s expectation that older people will have poorer memories can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• In cultures where that is not believed (Asia) the elderly show memories just as good as the young.

Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, was 117 when she died

Forgetting

Biological Forgetting Factors

• Damage to the Hippocampus
• Difficulty forming new memories
• Diminished in Alzheimer’s patients
• Neurotransmitters play a role
• Acetylcholine
• Alzheimer’s patients show low levels of this
• Decay theory
• Memories deteriorate because of the passage of time
• Distractor Studies – information fades from STM

Forgetting�Encoding Failure

Forgetting�Encoding Failure

Forgetting�Encoding Failure

Forgetting�Storage Decay

• Storage decay
• Ebbinghaus curve

Forgetting�Storage Decay

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure: �Interference

• Proactive interference (forward acting)
• Retroactive interference (backward-acting)

PORN

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure: �Motivated Forgetting

• Self-serving personal histories
• Repression

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure: �Motivated Forgetting

• Self-serving personal histories
• Repression

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure: �Motivated Forgetting

• Self-serving personal histories
• Repression

Forgetting�Retrieval Failure: �Motivated Forgetting

• Self-serving personal histories
• Repression

Memory Construction Errors�Misinformation and Imagination Effects

• Loftus memory studies
• Misinformation effect

Example: Brain Games False Memories

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Memory Construction Errors�Source Amnesia

• Source amnesia (source misattribution)
• Déjà vu
• “already seen”

Crash Course #14

Special Topics PPT

Memory Construction Errors�Discerning True and False Memories

• Memory studies
• Children eyewitness recall

Memory Construction Errors�Repressed or Constructed Memories of Abuse?

• Areas of agreement
• Sexual abuse happens
• Injustice happens
• Forgetting happens
• Recovered memories are incomplete
• Memories before 3 years are unreliable
• Hypnotic memories are unreliable
• Memories can be emotionally upsetting

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Improving Memory

Improving Memory

• Rehearse repeatedly
• Make the material meaningful
• Activate retrieval cues
• Use mnemonic devices
• Minimize interference
• Sleep more
• Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it and to help determine what you do not yet know

Kandel’s Sea Snail Experiment

• Eric Kandel – studied neural changes that took place in Aplysia, a sea snail. Click HERE to view it (4 min)
• Squirted it with water followed by an electric shock that classically conditioned it to withdrawal its gills next time it was squirted.
• This changed the three neuron circuit in the snail.

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Long-Term Potentiation – Neural change that occurs when you learn!

• Function of the neuron changed:
• increase in the amount of the neurotransmitter produced by the neuron.
• Structure of the neuron changed:
• number of interconnecting dendrites and axon terminals increased
• receptor sites for neurotransmitters increasing allowing for more communication points (synapses).

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Temporal Lobe

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• Facial Recognition is found in the Fusiform Gyrus of the Right Temporal Lobe
• Damage to this area can result in Face Blindness (4 min)
• Amygdala involved in production of emotional memories